Game On: Recent Grad Latest in Line to Help Produce NCAA’s ‘Madness’

Mar 10, 2019

By Ryan Clark

When he came to Xavier in 2014, he just knew he was going to be an accounting major.

Funny how life turns out, isn’t it? Nick Hessler ended up getting a job with the athletics department producing some video and social media, and he chose classes in the Williams College of Business to supplement what he wanted to learn in marketing.

Now, Hessler has become the latest Xavier student to work—in a permanent position or as an intern—with the NCAA in Indianapolis. He specializes in digital and social media, and it’s a job that gets especially crazy (and distracting) this time of year. Inevitably, Hessler will be working somewhere across the country during March Madness, always with one eye turned toward a device to see how Xavier is faring at the same time.

Hessler credits the Department of Athletics with instilling in him a sense of being excited about trying new things. He also says two classes helped with his development: Brand Building with Michael Kuremsky and Social Media Strategy with Matthew Dooley.

“Nick was a very engaged student in my Brand Building class, always seeking to understand the strategy and frameworks behind brands and leveraging those to develop his own personal brand vision from a professional standpoint,” Kuremsky said.

Dooley noted how Hessler came in with a good knowledge of social media strategy.

"I merely accentuated his knowledge and talents throughout the semester,” he said. “Among all students I've taught over the years, Nick stands out because of his hunger for learning and his openness to trying new things. He's not complacent. He's eager and creative. He impressed me with his knack for critical thinking and for his ability to take a good idea and make it great."

Now, he is doing what he loves. Hessler will be spending this week with the Division I women’s basketball committee, then will head to Ball State in Muncie, Ind., to cover their first and second-round games. By the end of March, he’ll be in Tampa for the women’s Final Four, then on to Buffalo, NY, for hockey’s Frozen Four.

It may sound like a blur, but it’s a lot of fun for the 22-year-old who graduated in 2018 with a Marketing degree. He took a quick timeout from his busy life to answer a few questions for us while we’re in the middle of March Madness:

How crazy is your job right now, being that the conference tournaments have started?

It’s wild, man. We’ve been full-steam ahead (although we’re already preparing for 2020 and 2021 postseason!) and preparing for March since early January, so we’re not doing a lot of strategy work at this point. Watching and tracking on lots of games, graphics creation and a fair bit of community management. At this point, we’re really just following the strategy that we’ve been crafting the past few months and sticking to it. A huge shout-out goes to the entire NCAA Championships Digital team for their constant support and encouragement as we were preparing for March. 

How did you become interested in working for the NCAA?

Leah Jenk (2017 Sport Management and Public Relations graduate) actually sent over a job opportunity at the NCAA that she thought I would be interested in. She was previously employed with the NCAA and was able to give me the ins and outs of the position. After talking it through with her and some mentors, I thought it’d be a great opportunity and decided to pursue it.

How did you then turn your interest into the actual job?

This is a really great question. When I declared an accounting major, I really enjoyed it and thought I could see myself doing it for the rest of my life. After getting an on-campus job with the athletic department doing video and a bit of social, I became really interested in the fact that this could be my job after Xavier. I began to find holes in the athletic department where I could insert myself to show my value while continuing to build upon skills. Leading gameday video strategies, creating and executing a strategy for Nova and UC, and being able to take on side projects with other sports really gave me the experience I needed to grow as a leader and additionally to grow professionally. I owe a lot of credit to the athletic department for pushing me to pursue this interest and turning it into a career.

How did Xavier help you do this?

Xavier was really great in doing this in the sense that we have a very small athletic department compared to other universities of the same size. I’ll always remember hearing (Vice President for Administration and Director of Athletics) Greg Christopher and (Sports Information Director) Tom Eiser talk at the beginning of each academic year saying that the student workers in the department are instrumental to the success of Xavier Athletics. Being able to take on projects and see them completely through was one of the greatest experiences that I certainly wouldn’t have gotten at other schools. I truly felt like my impact mattered which only led to more of a drive and increased passion each year.

On the academic side, the Williams College of Business did an excellent job preparing me to have a strategy-oriented mindset, teaching me what to think about, why to think about it and how to approach times where I’m not sure where to start. Learning how to build a personal brand with Michael Kuremsky and how to effectively show off your skills in the workplace will be forever useful. Additionally, spending a few class sessions on learning how to effectively communicate in the workplace is something that I look back on every day—how to get your point across in an email, how to create presentations effectively and truly how to speak so people listen.

The other class that comes to mind is Social Media Strategy with Matt Dooley. This was all about getting into the weeds of how to create and execute a social strategy for a business, which is exactly what I’m doing today. 

What do your daily duties consist of?

I lead the social media strategy for men’s and women’s soccer and women’s basketball. Essentially that means that I oversee the @NCAASoccer and @NCAAWBB accounts on all social platforms. While there’s no typical day in the office, a lot of my daily tasks revolve around community management, membership outreach and preparing for upcoming games.

So, what does the future look like for your career?

Unknown. In a few years I’d like to be leading a digital team, maybe at a conference office or university athletic department. We’ll see where this wild ride of sports media takes me. So far, it’s been nothing but good so I’m excited for the future!  

Anything else you’d like to add? 

Something that I didn’t realize until after I graduated was the fact that putting yourself into an unfamiliar or uncomfortable situation isn’t always a bad thing. Take a risk and buckle up, you never know where it’ll take you.

 

 

OTHER NOTABLE RECENT XAVIER GRADUATES AND THE NCAA:

Leah Jenk (2017 Sport Management and Public Relations)
Worked for NCAA Fan Engagement and Event Management in 2017.
Now works as collegiate partnerships specialist for the U.S. Olympic Committee.

Greg Frey (2013 Master of Education in Sport Administration)
Served as media and game operations volunteer during NCAA men’s basketball tournament in 2015.
Now works as athletics facilities and operations coordinator at Indiana State University.

Kelli Edelbrock (2011 Master of Education in Sport Administration)
Works as an account manager for the NCAA.

Alexandra Assimon (2012 Sport Marketing)
Served as an assistant site coordinator for NCAA men’s basketball Coca-Cola Youth Clinic in 2014.
Now works as an ad operations client coordinator for Stadium, a multi-platform sports network in Chicago.

April Phillips (2010 Bachelor of Business Administration, Information Technology)
Served as president for NCAA’s S&A Next Level basketball training camps for youth and collegiate athletes from 2010-2014.
Now works as the assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for the University of Arizona.